Matthew Dear

He could be any number of names in any given day -- or hour for that matter: Audion, Jabberjaw, False and Matthew Dear.

He could be any number of names in any given day -- or hour for that matter: Audion, Jabberjaw, False and Matthew Dear. It's the latter moniker, his given name, that has finally propelled the 28-year-old songwriter/producer/DJ onto the Billboard charts, as his Ghostly International effort "Asa Breed" climbed on to the Top Electronic Albums chart at No. 20.

"I tend to keep all those personalities separate while I'm on the road. But in the studio, it's not like I spend a few months being Audion then switch over to being Matthew Dear," he tells Billboard.com. "Audion has become my dancefloor techno, peak-time DJ-friendly version of me. Nothing too weird, all memorable dance tunes. As False, it's all a little more subversive. As Matthew Dear, I guess it's best explained as experimental pop music."

It's Dear's charming, dramatic baritone voice that bridges pop with dance on "Asa Breed," as electronic rhythms dance around his ethereal lyrics. Otherworldly synth textures are intertwined with organic drum riffs and, while the album is largely electronic and experimental in nature, the tracks arc and release like your average pop song.

The album has leant itself nicely to another one of Dear's experiments: a live band. For the first time since he began making music in the late '90s, Dear has recruited a live band -– a percussionist and a bassist -– to fill out his sound on stage. So far, so good as Dear prepares to tour in Europe for much of the summer. "I would like to have a really big band with more percussion and backup vocals, but I'd need some more cash..."

After some shows in Japan in August, Dear heads back to Europe, then tours the U.S. for all of October. Europe in December. January, February, Australia, Japan. "But, hey, I get November all to myself," he quips.

Aside from having his whole touring life planned out for the next nine months, the Texas native also hopes to finish a follow-up to "Asa Breed" for release early next year and plans to release a new effort, "2007," this summer under the False moniker via M_NUS Records. It will be recorded and sequenced like one long DJ mix, intended to be heard as one long song.

"It's indicative of the way we consume electronic music right now. You can do conceptual long mixes, go from 0 to 130 BPMs," he says. "If I had my choice, I would love to make money just composing tracks like that, making new chapters to each piece of music I make."